NiteNumen TK 35

I don't have a hot girlfriend to give one to (), but agree with all the postings above - got my pair and they are definite decent quality, easily moddable too. I got one torn down, no pics yet.

Tom,

Does this flashlight have a copper board?
They seem to handle heat real nice. Also seeing that they allow for using 2 cr123 is this driver a regulated buck?

On my second one, the blue switch light was going to blinking after approx 30 sec on high, didn’t matter the battery. Reboot and it would do the same.
Traced it down to driver ring having bad connection to body, cleaned it and problem disappeared.
Really like this light for the $ and should have gotten another set.

Thanks,
Keith

Uhhh, at work right now. You know, I disassembled one, had other lights opened/etc., lost time to work on them further, now I'm all discombobulated of what's what, so can't answer til I get home, and get back to the bench. I can recall a couple things, not all. Thought I saw a copper PCMCB, not sure if DTP.

Got distracted - just started cutting/trimming the lawn myself now (not since maybe the 80's) - bought Worx power pack tools and mower. I bought a set of 3 Worx tools (trimmer, blower, hedge clipper) refurbished and they gave me one bad 1.5 Ah, old 20V power pack. They sent me a replacement, also used, but at least it's 2 Ah. Turns out the bad one used Samsung 15Q's so replaced them with 30Q's, and now I got a spare 20V pack that's 3 Ah - better than the current 2 Ah power packs they sell! I'm assuming the 30Q's are almost as good as the 20R's, but the 20R was a hot cell when we were all using them (4-6 years ago?). The 2Ah packs hold 5 Samsung 20R's. They call 5 cells in series 20V, some manufacturers call that an 18V pack - funny... The mower came with 2 20V 4 Ah packs, but those are 2S5P packs and you install both, so effectively the mower is 40V. So I could update the two 2 Ah packs to 3 Ah, and the 4Ah packs to 6 Ah but not sure it's worth the cost and risks in re-wiring them. I think I'll upgrade the two 2 Ah packs, so this way, I'll have three 3 Ah packs so can use a pair to backup up the mower. The mower usually doesn't do the front and back lawns on the two 4 Ah packs. I'm only using new cells in these packs, hoping I'll get the longest life out of them. I'm soldering the tabs, but would rather tack weld - some good youtube vids on DIY tack welding out there - might be easily do-able. Tack welding is probably safer and better for the cells. To solder on the batt- side, you have to hold the iron tip on the battery for a few secs to get the solder to stick - might be somewhat damaging the cell or reducing it's life.

Ok, little off topic rambling... Anyways, I got pics from the TK35 tear down.

  • The MCPCB is the old cheap aluminum one, and the LED is clearly CW under the UV light.
  • though the MCPCB has 2 nice screws to secure it down, the thermal grease is the dry type that doesn't seem to give good coverage, though it's spread out pretty good.
  • The driver has the classic enclosed big coil (I think), so yes, probably is a buck. There's a small resistor inline with the LED- wire connection,probably to knock down the amps

Basic pieces:

With the nice brass driver retaining ring, no glue driver mount:

Alum MCPCB but with nice screws:

Driver with separate switch PCB - easier to mod. Notice short LED wires - must be de-soldered from the MCPCB first in order to remove the driver:

Driver details:

Switch details:

Shown with screws, nice low profile centering piece:

Look at the stock thermal grease:

And the Worx battery pack mod:

Missing pics of the newly assembled 30Q version for some reason... Pretty simple pack - I've taken apart more complicated ones, but this is the first one I've re-built. I re-used the tabs after forming them back into shape. All Cool though

[quote=Tom E]

Anyways, I got pics from the TK35 tear down.

Thanks for all the great pics and details, have not taken mine apart yet...

If the inline led resistor was bypassed how much would that increase amps..?

So, whats on the mod menu..? :D

I'm pretty sure that pair of R050's are in parallel. I can't really guess how much boost bypassing them would give. I'm usually disappointing by the bump, there's just so many factors, but you don't want to bump it too much because of stress on the components - might push it over their rated limits. Also, that old alum MCPCB is not made for high amps - you'd have to swap in a copper DTP one if you go too high.

For my mods, plan would be swap the driver, losing the charging, Anduril, and swap in a decent copper MCPCB. Not sure bout the LED - not sure if I have a SST-40 any better, or could go with a XHP50.2.

Thanks for the reply… What driver would you go with…?

I bought 2 but haven't done anything with them till the last few days. I think the SST40 won't produce any higher output than the XML2 if you leave the stock driver. However, it looks like you could get around 2000 lumens with a 3V XHP50.2 at 2.8A. Has anyone tried that mod out with this light yet?

You need closer to 5A to reach 2,000lm, you might gain maybe 100-200lm but XHP50.2 will definitely worsen the tint and beam shape.

I finished a full TK35 mod with a FET+1 driver, running Anduril, and a 5000K SST-40. Measured 140 kcd, about 1800 calibrated lumens after 30 secs. I really like the 5000K SST-40's

The tests were done with a VTC5D, measured 8.5 amps, had the springs bypassed, and kept the 20 AWG LED wires long to re-program without soldering.

@Tom E, could you show some photos of your mod to the FET+1 driver?

If I don't try that, I'm going to put a 219C, 5000K hi CRI LED on a copper MCPCB in this nice light.

Sorry just checked, I don't have any pics of the new driver. I use OSHPark drivers and reflow them myself. It's probably a std size 17 or 20 mm. I typically use the DEL OSHPark FET+1 drivers in my mods defined here: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/44006

If I get a chance, I'll take pics later and refresh my memory on this mod. I want to reflash it anyway, and turn on the Anduril feature of having power-up restore the last mode/level used used.

Ok, took some pics. I used the Cereal Killer designed driver for the ZYT-11, here on BLF: https://budgetlightforum.com/t/-/25299/1762. here on OSHPark: https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/8SacSyZ1

The R6 resistor is for the AUX LED's. I used a 6.8K - seems ok. White wire is for the AUX LED's, blue for the switch, and green for ground. On the switch PCB, I shorted the 2 AUX LED leads together, so the R6 off of pin #3 drives both RED LED's.

Tom, the SST40, 5000K, has got to be my favorite LED since I bought a Wild Trail D80 v2 with it. On this light, an LED & driver change is all it needs. Thank you for the pictures!

Edit: I looked at various LEDs to see which one would produce more lumens at the limited max amps of the stock driver. I went with an LH351D but with a tint of 4000K (because that's what I had plenty of). The other LEDs I had available to swap in are the Nichia 219c & XP-L HI at 5000K.

. Yeah, the 5000K SST-40 is my new favorite. Actually think'n of swapping out my XH50.2 3V triples for this LED.

The 4000K 351D is a nice one as well. Have it in a couple favorite lights.

I swapped out the SST-40 5000K for a SFT-40 CW pre-mounted on a 20 mm from Convoy.

Wow the SFT-40 is impressive! Not a fan of the tint, but the numbers don't lie.

The TK-35 has a 53 mm diameter head. Lumens taken at start and 30 secs - maukka calibrated #'s, throw taken at 5 meters:

SST-40 5000K, VTC5D: 8.5 amps, 2060-1840 lumens, 141 kcd

SFT-40 6500K, 30Q: 8.35 amps, 2430-2220 lumens, 313 kcd

It doesn't even look well focused, not a well defined hot spot, messy corona, but the output is excellent, and the throw for this size reflector is quite good as well.

that’s really impressive. seems like sft-40 is going to be very popular.

Yea, I would convert more lights, order more but the big Q is 5000K availability, if and when. Kaidomain's SFT-40 listing is confusing - they list 6500K and 7500K but I don't see the choice given, and blocks the order saying to choose a color tint. I have way more confidence with Simon.

So I got 1 more mounted on 20 mm, and 5 bare to decide how to use them. Might upgrade a SST-40 quad light, like the HK4S. Would like to try the 20 mm mounted one in the BOSS1 -- big reflector, 100 mm head diam. I got over 700 kcd on a de-domed XP-L, so this should do much better.

I’ll probably wait patiently for ~5k, though I suppose the numbers won’t be as stellar. Would be very interesting to try in Haikelite HT35.

I definitely want to try one in a zoomie. I got a HT35, but it's 2S cells, 12V LED driver, so I'd convert to one cell, maybe a 26800, and driver mod to a FET+1. I got other decent zoomies though that i can convert quicker, easier, like a B158 or a 1504.